Search

I spent a couple of hours the other night searching for Martha KINGHORN, but despite all my efforts she still hasn’t come out of hiding. Martha was the wife of my half 3x great-uncle Wybrants KINGHORN and as such not a major part of my family tree, but I would really like to find out what happened to her.

Martha GARDINER married Wybrants KINGHORN on the 28th April 1852 in the parish church at St George Bloomsbury, Middlesex. Both were of full age and Martha’s father’s name was Edward GARDINER, a compositor. That is the last record I have of Martha.

I cannot find her (or Wybrants) in the 1861 census, or any later ones, I don’t know when she died, whether she and Wybrants had any children or if she re-married after Wybrants’ death in 1866. Wybrants was sentenced to eight months in prison for larceny at the end of May 1852, did she stick by him or take the opportunity to make a break leaving him and his life of crime behind.

The truth is I don’t know. I have searched various combinations and spellings of her name, (and both her married and maiden names), her baptism in 1831 is recorded under Martha Elizabeth GARDNER, the daughter of Edward and Martha. It doesn’t help that I can’t find her parents after the 1851 census either, but to be honest I probably need to spend a bit more time on them and her siblings.

For a while I confined myself to searching after Wybrants death in 1866, but then realised that she may have died before then, in fact she may have died as early as 1852 just after they married. There are far too many possible scenarios to consider, I just need a bit of luck and a few more clues.

What I find particularly frustrating is that the further out I go on the branches of my family tree, the harder it becomes. I wouldn’t mind spending hours searching for someone who was more closely related or a direct ancestors but the wife of my half 3x great-uncle is not someone I would want to invest a lot of time and effort into, let alone her parents of siblings. Of course the very fact that she can’t be found make it all the more intriguing, was there something more sinister gong on, or did she just fall through the gaps in the system and not get recorded anywhere?